In February, Ireland finally came clean regarding some very dirty laundry, admitting its long-standing role in aiding and abetting the existence of the notorious Magdalene laundries.

Ostensibly asylums for the reform of "fallen" women, these facilities enabled the Catholic Church to turn a tidy profit by using women - petty criminals, unwed mothers or simply young women deemed overly flirtatious or beautiful, in a country that has long associated women with sex and sex with sin - as a slave labor pool. The last one wasn't closed until 1996. | May 10, 2013»Read Full Article(4)